When Superstorm Sandy hit in October 2012, it wiped out much of Jarad and Christel Astin’s Far Rockaway, New York, ground-floor apartment. They did, however, salvage the 22-foot sailboat, and it became a symbolic part of their life-altering change of course. Jarad, then 47, was burned out with his live animal curator job at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum , while simultaneously gigging as a musician and singer.
Christel, age 49, was a flautist in the Irish music world and taught at the New York Irish Arts Center . “Financially, it was difficult,” Jarad said, as the couple were raising two young daughters, ages 2 and 11 at the time. Although they had dreamed of living abroad once they retired, “we started legitimately kicking around the idea of sailing full time,” said Jarad.
“It was a moment of freedom.” To turn vision into action, in November 2013 the Astins raised $60,000 from their family, purchased a larger yacht, joined a sailing rally and left for the Caribbean with just one music gig booked in advance. Their first year was the most challenging, said Jarad, as they sailed through stormy waters, homeschooled their girls on their houseboat and landed venues to book their acoustic-gypsy-soul musical act.
“A lot of people who do things like this sell their home and apply the profit to a new life-style. We weren’t in that position. We had to find work.
It was all or nothing — we had to show up and old-school hustle,” he said. In 2017, after hurricanes .
